Gregg Popovich could win the NBA Coach of the Year Award season after season, and the argument against him would be minimal.

The longtime San Antonio Spurs coach is that good.

His Spurs were expected to be a strong team this season. But coming off a crushing loss to the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals and with an aging team one year older, the Spurs likely will finish with the league's best record and possibly the only team to win at least 60 games.

For that reason, Popovich should win coach of year. He already is a two-time winner of the award (2011-12 and 2002-03), so this is not a lifetime achievement. This based on what he did this season.

Popovich helped build a mentally, physically tough team capable of bouncing back from a devastating loss to the Heat in the Finals — up 94-89 with 28.2 seconds to play in Game 6 with a 3-2 series lead — and put together the best season in 2013-14.

That loss to Miami gnawed — probably still gnaws — at Popovich, but he didn't let it negatively impact this season, and San Antonio is in strong position to return to the Finals.

The Spurs are a better team this year — more efficient on offense (108.3 points per 100 possessions) while boasting a top-four defense (99.7 points allowed per 100 possessions) and a league-best plus-8.6 net efficiency. They are the only team in the league in the top five in offensive and defensive efficiency.

Popovich has guided the Spurs to the league's best record while managing minutes and extracting strong play from the bench. They are the only team in the league that doesn't have a player averaging more 30 minutes, and the bench scores a league-best 45.4 points per game. Reserves Patty Mills, Manu Ginobili, Marco Belinelli (a great offseason signing), Boris Diaw and Jeff Ayres could handle some opponents' starting five.

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The Spurs are also the best passing team in the league — first in both assists per game (25.2) and assist rate (25.9 assists per 100 possessions). That is a perfect example of what Popovich means when he talks about passing up a good shot for a great shot, a topic he expounded on in early March.

"There are a lot of good shots, but if you can turn that into a great shot, percentages go through the roof," he told news reporters. "Contested shots are really bad shots. People's percentage goes down almost by 20, almost without exception. All those things in an offense are things a coach is always trying to develop. It takes time to get everybody to the point where they all buy in and understand how it's good for the group to do things."

It's a concept easy to understand but not easy to execute. The Spurs obviously buy in, understand the greater good and have it down as well as any team in the league.

Popovich will deflect credit the way Tim Duncan blocks shots. The last time he won the award he said, "If you can draft David Robinson and follow that up with Tim Duncan, that's a couple of decades of very, very possible success unless you just screw it up. So it's hard to take credit when circumstances have gone your way so consistently."

That's just modest Popovich understanding it's a players' league, but his value can't be overstated.

For much of the year, the Phoenix Suns' Jeff Hornacek and Charlotte Bobcats' Steve Clifford were coach of the year front-runners, and they still will receive votes, along with the Chicago Bulls' Tom Thibodeau, Toronto Raptors' Dwane Casey and others.

But Popovich should join Pat Riley and Don Nelson as the only coaches to win the award three times.

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Howard Smith, USA TODAY Sports